Universality of Multiplicity and Transverse Momentum Distributions in the Framework of Percolation of Strings

In the framework of string percolation, the transverse momentum distributions in heavy ion collisions at all centralities and energies are shown to follow an universal behaviour, the shape of the distributions depending essentially on the transverse density of strings. We find that the relative suppression of intermediate and high pT production in central nucleus - nucleus collisions has the some origin as the narrowing of multiplicity distributions, the clustering of strings. The clustering of strings also explains naturally the dependence on the centrality of the transverse momentum fluctuations and the strength of the two and three body Bose - Einstein correlations. (author)